


when it rains, it pours

by kythen



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Merman!Tendou, Merpeople, also the ushijima with plants aesthetic, tendou is lowkey (highkey) thirsty, the merman in a bathtub aesthetic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 13:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8163740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kythen/pseuds/kythen
Summary: Life doesn't prepare you for what to do when a fast-talking, freeloading merman takes up residence in your bathtub.But Ushijima manages.





	

It had rained last night.

Ushijima feels it in the air when he wakes, a leftover chill that lingers when he throws his windows open for the morning and gazes outside. His garden is soaked, leaves and petals dripping rainwater and stalks knocked askew by last night's storm. It is still early and Ushijima can't see all the damage that had been done to his plants through the grey haze of morning.

He remembers waking up last night, throwing on a raincoat and trudging out into the dark to throw a tarp over the primrose seedlings he was nurturing. The raincoat is still there when he enters the bathroom and steps around the puddle of rainwater that had collected under it to reach the sink.

Ushijima has a morning routine, one that involves running and taking the long way through his garden to reach his front gate. In the aftermath of a storm, he takes longer than usual to get through his garden, checking every plant with meticulous care. He pulls back the tarp over his primroses and they peek out at him from under the waterlogged sheet, their leaves shivering as he lifts the tarp clear of them. The hydrangeas are fine, blooming beautifully through the rainy season, but the tomato plants have broken branches that need pruning. With the soil broken and soft under his feet, it is the best time to pull out some of the stray weeds that had been gathering and Ushijima plans for a shorter run that morning so that he can get that done before breakfast.

Finally, he reaches his begonias. They are always the last bit of his garden he looks over before leaving and Ushijima turns his attention to them and comes to a complete halt.

There are few things in life that could make Ushijima stop in his tracks. Seeing a beautifully red and unmistakably finned tail leading out from his begonia bushes enters that very short list in the span of time it takes Ushijima to process that there is indeed a fish amongst his begonias.

Only, it isn't exactly a fish, Ushijima realises as his gaze travels up the oversized tail. From the waist up, the scales turn into skin and forms itself into a human male, who has deep red hair just a shade darker than the vibrant hue of his tail, who is unconscious and half-sprawled against Ushijima's bushes, who is what Ushijima would call a merman.

The merman isn't moving, his tail draped across the ground and his hands tangled in the unhappy leaves of Ushijima's begonias. Neither the merman nor Ushijima's begonias seem to be particularly comfortable with this arrangement and Ushijima stoops, easing his hands under a glossy tail and a bare back before lifting him up in his arms. His begonias sigh in relief, their leaves shuffling back into their original positions and Ushijima considers the merman in his arms.

He doesn't look well, meaning that he looks just as well as a fish out of water, his head lolling against Ushijima's shoulder and the rest of him just as lifeless. He is breathing, just faintly, but his skin is cold to touch and caked with mud from Ushijima's garden. Coming to a decision, Ushijima hefts the merman in his arms and heads for the house.

Ushijima fills the tub in his bathroom and lowers the merman into it with great care. From the looks of it, the merman doesn't seems to be injured, just unconscious, and the colour rushes back into his skin as the water level in the tub rises steadily. Ushijima unhooks the shower head, turning it towards the merman's torso and spraying the mud off him.

Then, very suddenly—and very dramatically—the merman comes back to life. He gasps, his tail twitching so violently that it displaces almost all the water in the tub and his hands clawing at the tub's porcelain sides. He glances around, his movements jerky and his eyes wide as they come to focus on Ushijima. He opens his mouth, presumably to speak.

"Who are you?" Ushijima asks, lowering the shower head.

The merman shuts his mouth. And opens it again, arching a single expressive eyebrow. "That was supposed to be my question. Imagine waking up in some unknown place in a cramped" —he flaps his tail, his fins spilling out over the edge of the bathtub— "whatever this is, with a handsome stranger before you. By the way, who are you, handsome stranger?"

"Ushijima Wakatoshi," Ushijima replies.

"Tendou Satori," the merman introduces himself promptly, sticking a wet hand out of the bathtub. Ushijima takes it and Tendou beams at him. "Thank you for saving my life, Wakatoshi."

"You're welcome," Ushijima says, "but what were you doing in my garden?"

"I had no idea it was your garden," Tendou says plaintively. "I was unconscious."

"You were crushing my begonias."

"I'm sorry about that. Tell them I'm sorry too."

Ushijima regards Tendou and Tendou looks back at him with nothing but earnest sincerity in his eyes. Now that he is awake, he is much changed from how he had been in the garden. Tendou moves with a curious energy that cannot be contained by a tub, his arms and tail overflowing over the edges, his words shooting right out of his mouth and bouncing off the walls of the bathroom.

Ushijima switches off the shower head and hangs it back up in its holder, feeling Tendou tracking his every move. Tendou doesn't look away when Ushijima kneels back beside the bathtub, his pants already soaked through with the muddy water flooding the bathroom floor. There is something like fascination in Tendou's eyes, his lips curling along the edges as he holds Ushijima's gaze.

"How are you feeling?" Ushijima asks.

"Dehydrated," Tendou sighs, sliding down into the water. "But this is really helping."

Ushijima nods. He stands, leaning over to switch off the taps at the other end of the tub. "You're welcome to rest in my bathtub for as long as it takes for you to regain your health."

"That's really generous of you, Wakatoshi."

"I have more than one bathroom."

"No, that's not what I meant," Tendou says, "I mean, you're under no obligation to help me, a complete stranger."

"I found you in my garden," Ushijima replies.

Tendou doesn't say anything to that, falling into a oddly pensive silence as Ushijima leaves him and the bathroom.

Ushijima skips his morning run that day, changing out of his track pants and jacket and leaving them to drip alongside his raincoat in the other bathroom. He will have to leave his garden for later too, opting to skip right to preparing breakfast, cooking twice the amount he usually eats and setting aside a portion on a tray.

When he returns to the bathroom, Tendou's eyes are closed, the back of his head resting against the lip of the bathtub. He opens them as Ushijima nudges the door open and shoulders his way into the bathroom.

"What have you got there, Wakatoshi?" Tendou asks, slinging his arms over the side of the tub, his eyes flickering to the tray in Ushijima's hands.

"Breakfast."

"Oh, you shouldn't have," Tendou says, eagerly eyeing the tray that Ushijima sets before him, balanced across the width of the tub.

"I realise I didn't ask about your diet but I hope this will do."

"We eat what you humans eat, don't worry about that." Tendou gestures with a fork, all ready to dig in. "This looks great, Wakatoshi. Did you cook it yourself?"

"I make all my meals myself."

"You have a very lucky family here."

"I live by myself."

Tendou's fork stops halfway to his mouth and he regards Ushijima with a questioning look. "But it's such a big house."

"Yes," Ushjima says, not quite sure what the size of his house has to do with him living alone.

Tendou sets his fork down. "You know what, Wakatoshi? You should eat with me. I feel bad eating in front of you while you look starved."

"In the bathroom?" Ushijima asks. He has his own breakfast waiting for him in the kitchen but he doesn't think Tendou would be able to sit in a chair across from him.

"It's your house," Tendou says, arching an eyebrow at him. "Does it matter where you eat?"

As odd as Tendou's logic seems, he has a point. By eating together, Ushijima could keep an eye on Tendou without having to go hungry. It would save time and give him more time with his garden. Besides, it has been a while since Ushijima has eaten with anyone and it would be nice to have company for a change.

Ushijima leaves the bathroom again and returns with a stool, which he places across from Tendou's bathtub before settling down onto it with an identical tray of food in his lap. Tendou had stopped eating the moment Ushijima left and as Ushijima takes his place, Tendou continues poking at his food like he hadn't stopped at all.

\---

"Gooooood morning, Wakatoshi!" Tendou greets as soon as Ushijima opens the bathroom door.

"You seem better today," Ushijima remarks, placing Tendou's breakfast down in front of him.

"I am," Tendou says, pointing at him with a fork. "It's all thanks to your tender loving care. Ever considered a career in nursing, Wakatoshi?"

"I have a job," Ushjima says, settling down with his back to the wall and his own tray on his lap. "I'm a botanist."

"I should have guessed." Tendou stabs the fork in his direction. "The garden, the blatant overuse of vegetables in every meal, the earthy glow you have... It all adds up."

"Vegetables are good for you."

"That depends on how you define 'good'. But I'm not one to be picky about food, particularly good food so..." Tendou shrugs, spearing through multiple leaves of his lettuce with a single stab and putting them all in his mouth.

It has been a day since Tendou's arrival. The bathroom is spick and span again after Ushijima scrubbed the mud off the floor and the bathtub. The bathwater Tendou sits in is perfectly clear and Tendou himself is freshly scrubbed after Ushijima introduced him to the wonders of bath products.

Tendou's hair is even redder than Ushijima had first thought it was, standing in spikes pulled away from his face that, Tendou had informed him, were perfectly natural. The scales on his tail gleam in shades of red which reflect off the water, his fins spilling out of the bathtub and brushing against the floor. It looks too cramped in the bathtub for all of Tendou to fit inside comfortably, even if Tendou hasn't complained about it.

"Where do you live?" Ushijima asks, the question coming to him as he tries to think of a body of water large enough to contain Tendou, and possibly a Tendou family.

"In a lake," Tendou says. "It's connected to the sea."

There is a lake in the forest and much further down from it, the sea. It would take him about half a day's walk from his house if he was carrying Tendou.

"Would you like to go back? I'll take you there later if you like," Ushjima offers.

"Oh." Tendou inches down in the water, uncharacteristically hesitant as he says, "I'm still feeling a bit under the weather..."

"It's alright. Take as long as you need." Ushijima stands, leaning over to take Tendou's tray with him as he leaves the bathroom.

\---

It has been three days since Tendou started lodging in Ushijima's bathtub. So far, he has deflected all of Ushijima's offers to take him back and Ushijima takes it in stride, going through the motions of replacing Tendou's bathwater every morning and every night.

He also feeds him, cooking him three square meals a day and eating all of them with him, sitting across from Tendou on a stool in the bathroom. This means that he goes through his stock of food at a faster rate than usual and he decides to head into town earlier that week.

Ushijima considers getting Tendou heartier food to build his strength since he still doesn't seem to be up to the task of making it back to his lake. For someone who the bathtub can barely contain, Tendou is surprisingly lean, his elbows sharp, his torso narrow, and his tail streamlined. As if to make up for it, Tendou moves twice as much as an average human, throwing out his arms and slapping his tail against the water as he talks, showering Ushijima with tiny droplets until he politely tells Tendou to stop.

And Tendou _talks_.

Tendou talks and Ushijima listens. Tendou is always trying to draw him into conversation with questions about his life but most of the time he is a one man train of his own, his words speeding out of him without pause.

Tendou calls him "Wakatoshi" and it is strange because no one around him calls him that anymore. When he meets his colleagues for work, they call him "Ushijima" and when he talks to the grocers in town, they don't refer to him by any other name than "young man".

"Will that be all, young man?" asks the elderly woman who sells fish at the end of the market street.

"Yes, thank you." Ushijima pays her in exact change and takes the bag from her.

The woman eyes the bags in both his hands with concern. "That seems like an awful lot to carry all the way back to your house."

"I'll be fine, ma'am."

"Aren't you buying more than usual? You live alone, don't you?"

"I have a guest staying over."

"Oh my, a guest." The woman's eyes widen, brimming over with curiosity.

"Yes. Have a good day, ma'am." Ushijima nods to her and turns to leave, ready to head back down the street.

A flash of red catches his eye as he walks and Ushijima pauses, lifting his head to gaze at the flower shop across the road. There is a row of water lilies in the front window, all dainty and set in individual bowls, probably to serve as decorations. But there is one water lily that spills right out of its bowl, red and sprawling, the tip of an unruly petal nudging its neighbour.

Ushijima has always known that plants had their own personalities but this was uncanny. If Tendou had been born a flower he would probably look like that and the thought of it makes Ushijima crack a smile as he trudges down the market street and treks out to the edge of town, back to where his house is.

As he sets his groceries down on the kitchen table, he hears Tendou's voice ring right down the corridor, "Welcome back, Wakatoshi!"

Ushijima isn't used to this, hearing a reply before he even utters a word, and he goes down the corridor and opens the bathroom door to say, "I'm back."

"You could have just yelled it back," Tendou remarks, his arms folded across the side of the bathtub as he regards Ushjima with amusement.

Ushijima shrugs. "What would you like to eat today?"

\---

The next day, Ushijima hands Tendou a glass bowl and in it, his flower doppelgänger.

Ushijima has an understanding with the owner of the flower shop after the time he marched in to discuss the proper care of flowers with him and ended up in another discussion involving the running of a business. They still have discussions from time to time but lately Ushijima thinks there has been a marked improvement in the way the flowers are kept until they are sold.

Tendou's eyes are wide as he touches the tip of his finger to a waxy petal. "How quaint. What is it, Wakatoshi?"

"It's a water lily. A rhizomatous aquatic plant. It lives in the water like you and I thought you might like some company."

Tendou clutches the bowl to his chest and puts the back of his hand to his forehead, the water sloshing around him as he falls back dramatically. "Wakatoshi, are you trying to tell me something? Does this mean that you're going to be spending less time in my company? Is this a gift to lessen the pain of my future loneliness? Am I supposed to think of this plant as you and talk to it?"

"I think it looks more like you," Ushijima remarks, "but if it's causing you suffering, I could take it back."

Tendou straightens up, his fingers curving around the glass bowl protectively, almost possessively. "I'll take care of it."

Ushijima nods. "It's rather small at the moment but it will grow. If it grows beyond the bowl, you'll have to put it in the garden."

"I'll take care of it until then. Just tell me what to do with it, Wakatoshi." Tendou holds the bowl out at arm's length and regards the water lily seriously.

Ushijima sits at the edge of the bathtub, pulling the bowl in Tendou's hands towards him, and starts to explain.

\---

Somewhere along the way, Ushijima realises that he stopped asking Tendou whether he wants to go back. Tendou never mentions it either, contenting himself with asking Ushijima about his day and bombarding him with daily observations from his bathtub. His flower doppelgänger sits on the narrow windowsill by the tub, soaking in the first rays of sunlight, and Tendou looks at it proudly. Briefly, Ushijima notices that Tendou's gaze drifts to the window and what is outside it, which opens up into a view of his garden.

"Do you want to go outside?" Ushjima asks Tendou as he cleans up after breakfast.

Tendou jumps slightly, looking away from the window. "Huh?"

"If you want to go outside, I could show you my garden," Ushijima says, "I take great pride in it."

"It's a lovely garden," Tendou agrees. "But, uh, how would you get me outside?" He flaps his tail for emphasis.

"I'll carry you."

And so for the first time in weeks, Ushijima finds himself taking Tendou out of the house, even if it is just to his garden. It feels like a repeat of the first time he had carried Tendou into the house, only this time he moves in reverse, walking Tendou out with Tendou's arms locked firmly around his neck. Tendou seems excited and Ushijima has to hold onto him tightly to stop him from spilling out of his grasp and onto the grass, tail and all.

"You're so strong, Wakatoshi. You must work out often. How long do you think you can hold me up?" Tendou asks as they get through the front door.

"I'll put you down when my arms get tired."

Tendou throws an arm out and points straight into the garden. "Then let's get this tour started asap!"

"How much do you know about plants?" Ushijima asks as Tendou surveys his garden from the front door.

"Not much," Tendou admits, "I know what's edible, I guess."

Ushijima walks over to his vegetable patch. "Then let's start with these."

Over the course of the morning, Ushijima introduces Tendou to his tomato and basil plants, showing him where his lettuce comes from and then swivelling over to the herb garden growing by his kitchen window. His primroses are coming in nicely and Ushijima brings them to Tendou's attention before deciding to call it a morning. The layer of moisture over Tendou's skin and scales has dried up and he seems distracted, his comments and questions coming less frequently as Ushijima runs him through the uses and properties of primroses.

"How long can you last out of the water?" Ushijima asks as he carries Tendou back in, surprisingly, without facing any objections.

"Long enough," Tendou replies as Ushijima lowers him back into his tub.

"That's not a standard measurement of time."

Tendou makes a face. "Maybe up to an hour or two? As long as it takes for the moisture to dry up, I suppose."

"I see," Ushjima says. "It would have been better if you had told me that before we left."

Tendou sinks into the tub, the water level drawing a line across the bridge of his nose. His face looks strained, his eyes narrowed in fatigue, and Ushijima decides to leave him for now.

But as he reaches the door, a question emerges in his head and he turns to ask, "Tendou, how did you get to my garden in the first place?"

There is no response and when Ushijima looks back at Tendou, his eyes are shut and the surface of the water is still.

\---

It rains again the next day, the wind howling and lashing raindrops against his windows. Ushijima hurries out in his raincoat, pulling out the tarp and pinning it over his primroses. As the days run into June, there has been a rise in the sudden showers and storms, particularly at night. Apart from looking after Tendou, Ushijima has work to do, reports to write up from his visit to Yakushima, and even though he sleeps at a reasonable time, there is a chance that he won't wake up in the middle of the night if a storm hits and ravages his garden.

His fears come true one day when he wakes just as his alarm rings and feels a telltale chill permeate his room. Ushijima rushes out into the garden, barely stopping to shove his feet into his slippers as he goes to his primroses.

The tarp is there in place, a pool of shallow rainwater gathered in the middle of it and weighing it down. Ushijima pulls it off quickly, checking for any damage done to his primroses. They are fine but the strange thing is that Ushijima doesn't remember waking up last night to put the tarp over them. The placement of the tarp is unlike him too, the knots different from how he usually does them, which only strengthens Ushijima's suspicions that it hadn't been him who did this.

Ushijima tells Tendou about it later that morning when Tendou is languishing in his tub, completely unaffected by last night's storm.

"Fairies," Tendou replies immediately. "It must be fairies. If merpeople like me exist, there could definitely be helpful, plant-loving fairies out there."

"Fairies," Ushijima repeats.

"Or garden gnomes," Tendou adds. "You practically live in the forest and there are tons of things that live there too. Maybe someone saw your garden being pelted by the storm and was seized by the righteous urge to save it."

"That makes sense," Ushijima says. But somehow, fairies or gnomes don't seem to be the right answer to his question.

Ushijima had never seen a merperson before Tendou but he hadn't questioned his existence, taking Tendou in with remarkable adaptability even for him. Ushijima thinks that if a fairy or a gnome were to show up in front of him, he wouldn't doubt them either. It isn't doubt about their existence he feels but more of a gut feeling, an instinct that tells him that it was someone else who had rescued his primroses.

\---

"Is your guest still staying with you?" asks the fish shop owner as Ushijima stands over the rows of fish and considers each one carefully.

"Yes."

"Is it a woman?" she prods as Ushijima picks out his selections.

"No."

"A man?"

Tendou would more accurately be considered a merman but Ushijima supposes that classification would work for him. "Yes."

The elderly woman sucks in a breath of air, her eyes going wide. She looks ready to burst with questions but as Ushijima pays for his fish, she limits herself to one. "Is he a permanent guest?"

Ushijima thinks about it. It has been close to a month since he found Tendou in his garden and Tendou still hasn't shown any signs of leaving. He has become something of a permanent addition to Ushijima's house, one that Ushijima doesn't question and one that Ushijima has grown strangely fond of.

Tendou is different from the plants Ushijima rescues and grows in his garden, which need just as much taking care of as Tendou. Unlike them, Tendou talks, asking him about his day, telling him about his day, and giving him comments about how his food tastes. He listens when Ushijima tells him all about his garden and remembers when Ushijima takes him outside the next day, referring to each flower by the correct name.

Ushijima has never felt lonely when it was just him and his garden but he thinks that if Tendou were to leave, even if this was never meant to be anything but a temporary home to him, the house might feel just a little bit emptier.

"I don't know," Ushijima finally answers.

She looks sympathetic. "Do you want him to stay?"

"It has been nice having him around."

"Then you should tell him that," she tells him firmly and hands over his bag of fish.

Maybe he should, Ushijima considers as he heads back down the market street, laden down with bags of groceries on either side. So far in all their conversations, he has only been replying to Tendou's questions or asking him questions about his wellbeing. He hasn't been contributing much in his own way and maybe it had been irresponsible of him to be leaving all the talking up to Tendou.

A flash of red catches his eye and Ushijima turns his head instinctively towards it. It is the flower shop again but when Ushijima looks, he doesn't see anything with that distinctive shade of red in the front window. He stops in the middle of the road, watching the flower shop for a while, but he doesn't see that distinctive shade of red again and he continues on his way.

When Ushijima returns home, he heads straight for the bathroom where Tendou is. He doesn't know what he is expecting, for Tendou to be there or not, but when he opens the door, he hears Tendou before he sees him, humming as he slouches down in the water. Tendou has a magazine open before him and he perks up as Ushijima comes through the door, dropping the magazine back onto the stack of horticulture magazines Ushijima had dug up for him when Tendou complained of boredom.

"Welcome back, Wakatoshi." Tendou slings his arms over the side of the bathtub—his favourite position when Ushijima was around. "How was the market today?"

"There was a sale on fish," Ushijima says.

"I'm assuming that's going to be our main course for the next few days then."

"It might."

"I'm not complaining when you're the one cooking, Wakatoshi." Tendou shrugs, his lips curving up in a smile as he rests his head on his arms, looking up at Ushijima in that oddly fascinated way of his again.

For once, Ushijima feels at lost as to how to proceed from here. He can't say, _"I thought I saw you at the market but that can't be possible because you can't get out of the water by yourself."_ It feels like an accusation.

"What's up, Wakatoshi?" Tendou asks, his eyes turning curious as the silence stretches out between them without Ushijima making any move to leave. "Got a stomachache or something?"

So instead, Ushijima says, "Tendou, it's nice having you around."

Tendou straightens back up and blinks at him slowly. "Thanks, Wakatoshi? I like having you around too. But, uh, what brought this on? You're not going to throw me out or something, are you?" Tendou asks warily.

"I'm not. It's just something I wanted you to know."

"That's a pretty big 'something' coming from you, Wakatoshi."

"Is it?"

"Yes," Tendou replies. He is redder than usual, the colour not just confined to his hair and tail, but spreading across his cheekbones and soaking into the tips of his ears. "But it's not a bad thing."

"I see." Ushijima leans back against the bathroom wall. "I was told that I should start saying more to you."

"You're going to say more?" Tendou says faintly. "Wakatoshi, I don't know how much OOC I can take from you at the moment."

"Not now, but I'll tell you when it comes to me."

"Oh, thank god."

\---

It isn't raining but Ushijima wakes up anyway.

His alarm doesn't ring for another two hours but he switches it off, puts on a sweater to ward off the pre-dawn chill and goes down to the laundry room. As a rule, Ushijima doesn't let his dirty clothes pile up, washing them as soon as he has the right amount to fit into the washing machine. He should have the right amount after yesterday's clothes but for some reason, he finds himself short of a shirt, a pair of pants, and a jacket—a complete set of clothes.

It isn't anywhere in the laundry room when he checks or his bedroom or the other bathroom that Tendou doesn't occupy. Ushijima goes from room to room, checking each one meticulously, only to come up empty. The only room he hasn't checked is Tendou's bathroom and Ushijima finds himself standing in front of the bathroom door with a hand hovering over the doorknob.

It isn't going to be there. Ushijima knows this even without entering the bathroom and he steps away from the door.

It is still dark when Ushijima reaches his front door, shuffling into his slippers and taking a step outside. It is still cold too but the sweater and pyjama pants Ushijima has on is enough as he sits down on the front step and waits.

Tendou comes through the front gate.

Ushijima sees the red of his hair before the rest of him, recognisable even through the early morning dim. Tendou walks with a spring in his step as he crosses into the garden, humming softly as he latches the gate behind him. He is wearing the missing set of clothes Ushijima had been hunting for, the pant legs loose around his legs in a way it never had been for Ushijima and the hood of his jacket pulled up over his head, his hair squashed into a mess under it.

Tendou's humming cuts off abruptly as he makes it across the garden, his feet coming to a stumbling stop as he finally notices Ushijima sitting by the door. Panic flits over his face, gone as quick as it had come. Then he smiles ruefully, pulling the hood of his jacket off as he says, "Looks like you found me out, Wakatoshi."

Without waiting for a response, Tendou seats himself next to Ushijima on the front step. He fiddles with his shoelaces, tugging off his shoes—Ushijima's shoes—and placing them on the ground. His socks come off next, which he scrunches into the shoes, and Ushijima finds himself looking down at a pair of perfectly normal feet.

Tendou wriggles his toes then brings his knees in close and hugs them to his chest. "Well, ask away, Wakatoshi. The least I can do is answer any questions you have before you kick me out."

"Are you a merman?"

"Yes," Tendou answers decisively, "even though I might not look like it now."

"What happened to your tail?"

"It goes away when I'm on land. I only look like an actual merman when I'm in the water. Other times, I look just like you."

"So you don't need to stay in the bathtub all the time?"

"I don't," Tendou confirms, resting his chin on his knees and turning his head to look at Ushijima accusatorially. "Wakatoshi, you're not asking me the most important questions."

"What would they be?"

"Don't you want to know why I did all this?" Tendou asks. "Why I pretended that I couldn't leave your bathtub all this while? Why I was in your garden in the first place?"

"If it's important to you, tell me," Ushijima says.

"It should be important to you too," Tendou mumbles into his knees, facing forward and gazing out into the garden. "Don't you feel shocked? Or betrayed?"

"I am surprised," Ushijima admits.

"You don't look like it." Tendou eyes him from above his knees. "How are you so calm? I'm this close to having a heart attack here."

"Why?"

Tendou looks away, back into the garden. Then he straightens up, his knees falling away from his chest as he turns to face Ushijima. There is resolution in his eyes, an expression of Tendou's that Ushijima is completely unfamiliar with and Ushijima finds himself sitting up a bit straighter to meet him.

"I like you, Wakatoshi," Tendou says clearly, loudly enough that it rings out around the garden. "And that's why I was in your garden and why I pretended that I couldn't leave your bathtub without help and why I lied to you about all this. I'm apologising for that but I won't say I regret it one bit."

That answers a lot of questions Ushijima didn't know he had and he sits there, quietly listening as Tendou continues, "At first it wasn't _like_ per se, but just curiosity. I've always wanted to know what you did and why you were growing flowers and plants and vegetables in the middle of nowhere. So I broke into your garden and draped myself fetchingly across your begonias—I've already apologised to them, Wakatoshi, no worries. You have no idea how tiring it is to maintain my tail and all while lying there. We merpeople aren't made to survive like that on dry land.

"After you took me in, I was actually going to do a runner if you turned out to be a horrible person. But you're not, Wakatoshi. You really aren't. You're the complete opposite of horrible and that's why I haven't been able to leave." Tendou falls silent, the wind going out of him as he comes to the end of his speech. He droops, his shoulders sagging forward and his hands meeting in his lap, forming into a worried knot of fingers.

Ushijima thinks. It is a lot to take in at once and he turns Tendou's words over in his mind, digesting them carefully. As Tendou had said, he should feel shocked or betrayed but as he sorts through his emotions on this matter, he finds that he doesn't.

It isn't that he is particularly kind or generous or in the habit of picking up strangers and looking after them for weeks and weeks. It is just that he knows, from these past weeks up to this very moment, that Tendou isn't a bad person. Even if he hadn't been telling the complete truth, Tendou doesn't have any ill intentions and he hadn't harmed Ushijima in any way or form. Tendou had simply been good company to him, even if most of that company had been spent in the bathroom.

"You should have just asked if you wanted to know about me and my garden," Ushijima says at last.

Tendou whips around to face him, his eyebrows jumping up into his hairline. "What, really?"

"It would have been more productive than draping yourself over my begonias and confining yourself to my bathroom for an extended period of time."

"And you wouldn't have said no?" Tendou presses him, still incredulous.

"I wouldn't have had a reason to."

Slowly, a smile creeps up on Tendou's face, his fingers unknotting themselves from each other and his shoulders bouncing back up. "You can't be serious."

"I'm always serious."

"I know that," Tendou says, the tension easing out of him. He exhales gustily, cutting himself off mid-breath as he suddenly remembers, "But wait, are you kicking me out then? Since the truth has come to light and all."

"You can still stay if you like," Ushijima assures him. "Although if you prefer, you could stay in one of my guest rooms instead. It might be more comfortable than the bathtub."

Tendou throws back his head, his arms punching the air triumphantly as he crows, "Wakatoshi, you _do_ love me."

Ushijima considers this. "I do like you."

Tendou's face colours, going almost as dark as his hair. His smile freezes, then wobbles, before finally straightening out into a grin. "But like in a friend way, right? I'm savvy enough to know where this conversation is heading. Tendou Satori will not be fooled by shoujo trope misunderstandings."

"Maybe not," Ushijima replies, watching in faint amusement as Tendou's mouth falls comically open.

"Oh my god." Tendou brings his knees up to bury his face in them again, his face showing red where he doesn't quite manage to cover it.

Ushijima smiles, turning his attention forward, looking out into his garden as Tendou curls in on himself. While they had been talking, the sun had risen, chasing the pre-dawn chill away and bringing the colour back into the garden bit by bit. It is morning, perhaps around the time that Ushijima usually wakes, and he has a routine to follow.

But just for today, just like the first day he had found Tendou, Ushijima finds himself breaking routine as he asks Tendou, "What do you want for breakfast?"

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> This was my first shot at ushiten so thank you to everyone who read it and left wonderful comments during the anon period and after!
> 
> Find me here: [tumblr](http://kythen.tumblr.com) / [twitter](http://twitter.com/catcrowcalls)
> 
> EDIT: LOOK AT THIS STUNNINGLY VIBRANT BIRTHDAY FANART THE FANTASTIC [MATCHACHA](http://matchacha.tumblr.com) DREW FOR THIS FIC! [LOOK AT IT!!](http://matchacha.tumblr.com/post/156166818492)
> 
> [Another beautiful fanart of bathtub merman Tendou](https://zhadyrart.tumblr.com/post/174542186016/i-finished-it-tendou-satori-for-kythen-s-story) by [Zhadyrart](https://zhadyrart.tumblr.com)!


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